Adobe 65011817 - Fireworks CS4 - Mac Using Manual page 121

USING FIREWORKS CS4
Applying color, strokes, and fills
Create fills with the Gradient tool
Use the Gradient tool to fill an object with a gradient instead of a solid color. The Gradient tool retains the properties
of the last-used element.
Click the Paint Bucket tool in the Tools panel and select the Gradient tool from the pop-up menu.
1
Select attributes in the Property inspector.
2
3 Click and drag the pointer to establish a starting point of the gradient and the direction and length of the gradient area.
Transform and distort fills
You can move, rotate, skew, and change the width of an object's pattern or gradient fill. When you use the Pointer or
Gradient tools to select an object with a pattern or gradient fill, a set of handles appears on or near the object. Drag the
handles to adjust the object's fill.
Use the fill handles to interactively adjust a pattern or gradient fill.
• To move the fill within an object, drag the round handle, or use the Gradient tool to click in a new location.
• To adjust the fill width and skew, drag a square handle.
• To rotate the fill, drag the lines connecting the handles.
To rotate a fill in 45-degree increments, hold down Shift as you drag.
Modify the edges of fills
The edges of a fill can be a regular hard line or can be softened by anti-aliasing or feathering.
By default, edges are anti-aliased. Anti-aliasing subtly blends the edge into the background to smooth the jagged edges
that can occur on rounded objects such as ellipses and circles.
Feathering produces a noticeable blending on either side of the edge. This blending softens the edge, creating an effect
similar to a glow.
Do one of the following:
1
• Click the Edge pop-up menu in the Property inspector.
• Click the Fill Color box in the Tools panel, click Fill Options, and click the Edge pop-up menu.
Select an edge option: Hard, Anti-Alias, or Feather.
2
For a feathered edge, select the number of pixels (between 0 and 100) on each side of the edge that is to be feathered.
3
The default is 10. The higher the level, the more feathering occurs.
Last updated 3/8/2011
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